Amazon seems to have beaten Apple to the movie punch. Amazon’s new service is dubbed Unbox (which officially makes the whole un-whatever fad quite over and uncool).
TV shows will cost $1.99 per episode, and most movies will go for $7.99 to $14.99; movies can also be rented for $3.99.
When customers download a show or movie, Unbox will automatically give them a second file that can be viewed on portable digital players that use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player.
TV shows are the same price but better quality. That’s reportedly because I can’t confirm while using mac OS X because the service requires Windows XP. I’d use Boot Camp to check it out, but that would be letting them win. The movie pricing is interesting, but the variable aspect smells of music services that competed with iTunes but confused consumers.
Those movies can only be played on the computer that downloaded them, compatible Windows Media portable playback devices, and in the DVD player of the computer that downloaded them. That’s right, locked down right.
Here’s what Apple needs to do to beat them: support the iPod (if they come out with a full video iPod even better), let you use it on multiple computers, unify pricing, let people burn to DVD that can be played in set top boxes (ok, this is wish list material), and offer a subscription rental service (a la Netflix, but actually over the net). If Apple offers even a couple of those, I see a repeat of what happened with online music.
[via GigaOM]
